- Open administration
- Open Data and Transparency
- Open government
- Innovation
- sense category
The importance of the amendment period in the Digital Maturity Index (IMD)
What is meant by smart administration? At what point on the road to this AI are we? What are the strategies and tools needed to go there? What competencies and skills will the public management require to meet the challenges that the AI faces?
These are the questions posed by Olinda Anía, an expert in administrative reform policies in the Department of Digital Policies, to the three speakers of the roundtable Celebrated on November 27 at the EAPC, as part of the management development plan: Governance, Ethics and Integrity. The three speakers were David Puentes, of the Secretariat of Digital Policies and Public Administration, Marga Bonmatí, director of the Open Administration Consortium of Catalonia (AOC) and Ascen Moro, responsible for Knowledge Management and Quality, Sant Feliu de Llobregat City Council.
TALENT + DATA + SUPERCOMPUTATION = CATALONIA.AI
David Puentes began by explaining the strategy of the Generalitat de Catalunya to move towards Intelligent Administration, an administration that is based on the intensive use of data and algorithms in the provision of public services and pursues achieve a closer relationship with the public through the use of information and communication technologies for better results, more openness and accountability.
Thus, the Generalitat has designed a global strategy in Advanced Digital Technologies (Blockchain, 5G, drones, IoT,…) and in particular a Catalan Artificial Intelligence Strategy of which David is the coordinator. Not in vain, the Generalitat is currently one of the most important data factories in Catalonia: all the trials of the Department of Justice are recorded on video, the Health system generates thousands of medical images, traffic data, etc.… For processing this huge amount of information in an “intelligent” way not only requires computing power, but also, if not talented people who invent “algorithms”, which makes the processes happen automatically.
The detection and management of this talent is one of the key issues in the Catalan strategy and in this sense a firm commitment has been made to the education of children in schools, the training of public employees of the Generalitat, and the creation of a course open to the public with university credits for anyone interested.
Agile, efficient and secure services • No paper • No confusing instructions • One click or one voice • Proactive and personalized
Marga Bonmatí shared with the public her dream: a single model of public administration that is simpler, digital by default, transversal and closer to citizens. More in hand.
He gave an operational view of how to walk towards smart administration, with what tools and instruments we can do it and with new ways of working. The premises that must be taken into account from a good start are:
Citizens at the center • Facing challenges together (collaborative, co-designing and sharing) • Data-driven and technology-supported • Transparently • Offering confidence • Innovating
Taking into account these premises, the AOC is rethinking the services it offers to all Catalan public administrations with the clear aim that each entity "does not have to reinvent the wheel". Thanks to this vision based on the collaboration and reuse of common e-government solutions and services offered by the AOC to more than 2.200 public bodies, last year 280M euros were saved in Catalonia (savings distributed between the administration and the general public)
Of the range of new public services that the AOC is currently working on, Marga highlighted the project MyGov, a digital solution to improve citizens' relations with public administration, with a transversal, personalized and proactive vision. MyGov responds to the smart administration paradigm we want to go to and empowers the citizen with the control of its data. With MyGov we can:
The MyGov prototype is available through'open space for proposals for improvement of the AOC Lab for anyone who wants to participate.
A management model: smart governance
Ascen Moro answered Olinda's questions from the local point of view, closest to the citizenry. He first emphasized the different speeds that different administrations are walking, which makes it very difficult to have processes that go from end to end.
It is imperative to have a well-defined action plan and management model in place to guide digital, sustainable, open and social administration. As an example, he detailed the Digital Transformation Plan 2017-2020 of the City of Sant Feliu de Llobregat, which contemplates the 5 strategic objectives defined in the EU Electronic Administration Action Plan:
High-performance computing • Artificial intelligence • Cybersecurity and trust • Advanced digital skills • Digital capabilities and interoperability
He emphasized the need to develop smart governance: greater efficiency in internal processes. An intelligent administrative organization, structured around a service architecture oriented to simplified and common processes.
The Ascen determined that leadership is the key factor in achieving the real transformation of AAPPs, but that it is also necessary to promote a Professional Public Management that is trained to lead this transformation.
Finally, the round of questions was opened and it was discussed how to reach the provision of personalized and proactive services - typical of a smart administration - without invading the privacy and the right to privacy of people. In this sense, all attendees agreed on the great responsibility of administrations to communicate carefully and "on time" innovation projects, especially those related to the processing and mass analysis of personal data. And it was concluded that communication must be part of the strategy for smart administration, as it is part of the heart of the value propositions of new public services.